The invention relates to novel low-calorie food additives derived from starch and also to processes for preparing such additives by the reaction of food acids with starch and starch derivatives under specified conditions. It also relates to novel uses of such additives when incorporated into food products as non-digestible substitutes for starch and starch-containing products, e.g. flour, and for other saccharides, e.g. sugars, and also as replacements for fatty triglycerides.
It is well known that starch can be modified by heat and/or by reaction with small amounts of mineral acids, alkalis or salts. The products of such processes are known as British gums, Canary dextrins, and the like and some of these products are partly non-digestible. It is also well known that starch can be hydrolyzed in aqueous solution, using acids and/or amylolytic enzymes to effect the hydrolysis, to form partly or wholly hydrolyzed products all of which are, like starch itself, completely digestible. It is also known to produce partial esters of starch with dibasic carboxylic acid such as maleic, fumaric and succinic acids.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,766,165 discloses non-nutritive carbohydrate substitutes prepared by polycondensation of saccharides in the presence of polycarboxylic acid catalyst at reduced pressure. They are prepared by melting a dry saccharide, such as d-glucose or maltose, at a temperature below the point of substantial decomposition of said saccharide, maintaining the molten saccharide at about 140.degree. to 295.degree. C. and at reduced pressure in the presence of a catalytic amount of up to 10 mol percent of a food-acceptable polycarboxylic acid catalyst and in the substantial absence of water until substantial polymerization occurs, and simultaneously removing the water formed during the melting and polymerization.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,732,207 discloses a starch reaction product of dibasic organic acid anhydrides and specifically starch dextrin esters and thin boiling starch esters of dibasic organic anhydrides, preferably succinic or maleic anhydrides. This product is made by an essentially dry process involving the heating of intimately contacted starch or starch dextrin with a dibasic organic acid anhydride at a temperature of 100.degree.-155.degree. C. in the presence of only 0.5 to 15% moisture for selected times to produce a product of 0.02 to 0.04 degree of substitution.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,657,010 discloses the preparation of moisture-stable hydrolyzed starch by heating corn syrup in the presence of acid, preferably fumaric acid, to a temperature of about 300.degree. F. to 370.degree. F. The resultant product is allowed to cool and solidify and is then ground to a dry powder.